Neighbors in Need: Glen Ellyn nonprofit provides families a bridge to a better place

Amy Van Polen rattles off the statistics. They are not great.

The CEO of the Glen Ellyn-based nonprofit, Bridge Communities, said more than 3,000 DuPage County schoolchildren are registered as homeless.

Van Polen said about 44% of county renters are “rent-burdened,” paying more than 30% of their income for rent. Expenses rise, she said, and wages don’t keep up.

Bridge Communities, the largest provider of transitional housing to families in DuPage County, counters with positive outcomes.

Since its 1988 founding by Wheaton residents Mark Milligan and the late Bob Wahlgren, Bridge Communities has worked with more than 1,000 families to secure housing.

Upon completing Bridge’s approximately two-year mentorship program, roughly 90% of clients go directly into permanent housing, and 75% never face homelessness again.

Almost entirely funded by private contributions, Bridge Communities is one of five charitable organizations set to receive grants from the Daily Herald/Robert R. McCormick Foundation’s Neighbors in Need fundraising campaign.

“Our goal is to move a family from the insecurity of their housing or homelessness to permanent housing, and we do that through economic stability,” said Van Polen, a Wheaton resident whose entire career has been spent in social services, the last 18 years with Bridge Communities, 500 E. Roosevelt Road, Glen Ellyn.

“That might be continuing education, improving their employment, improving their income in their household, helping them pay down their debt, increase their credit score — all the things that would be needed to improve their financial security, which then would give them the best opportunity for long-term sustainable housing.”

Bridge receives roughly 3,000 inquiries a year, Van Polen said, but not all those seeking help are eligible.

Applicants must live, work or have family in DuPage County, have children, and they must have a work history, current job or be working part-time while enrolled in school. The emphasis on children is an attempt to snap a cycle of poverty or homelessness.

A typical client, who averages a little over two years working with Bridge mentors while living in one of the 25 apartment buildings Bridge owns countywide, is a single mother in her late 20s with one to three children, Van Polen said.

She works, but her job doesn’t provide a living wage. So she has her children stay with relatives while she may live out of her car. There might be a history of domestic violence.

“Family homelessness is our neighbors,” Van Polen said. “It is the person that you are interacting with in your daily life through your service providers or the children that your children go to school with.”

During an interview process, an applicant is assigned a services team that includes a case manager, a children’s case manager, an employment counselor and a mentor team.

In weekly meetings with the mentor team, a family will start by developing a budget and outlining goals, with progress reassessed quarterly by the services team.

The team may arrange for a variety of services — mental health counseling or physical checkups, children’s tutoring, cooking classes, continuing education, and even help the family acquire furniture. The key is sticking to a budget and saving money for a client’s eventual matriculation through the program.

“It’s a lot of talking, a lot of listening and a lot of putting yourself in their shoes,” said mentor Mavis Hawkes of Lisle, who in weekly sessions has helped 10 families into new housing since she started volunteering with Bridge in 2009.

Mame Diaw saw her fortunes slide after she lost her job and was unable to pay rent. She and her four children, now between 12 and 21, were living with a friend when they were referred to Bridge Communities in 2020.

Working with mentors Ken Kurzeja and Sue Harold, she established a plan and a budget that allowed her to pay off a car loan. They helped update her resume, search for a new job and “helped her emotionally,” Diaw said.

“It was not easy at the beginning, but it was a process,” she said.

Encouraged to chase her dream of returning to school, Diaw earned a management certificate from College of DuPage. She is now studying for a bachelor’s degree in nonprofit management at North Park University.

In 2023, Diaw and her children moved into a three-bedroom apartment in Glendale Heights — and she still is able to seek advice from her mentors, who likewise keep in touch.

“After four years, I keep going, and they always keep motivating me,” Diaw said.

“They’re really great, I love them all. I have a stable job, too,” she added. “My life changed because of Bridge.”

<strong id="strong-6c97bd0abc8fc7b09e9e7c893e9b8452">Bridge Communities</strong>

Where: 500 E. Roosevelt Road, Glen Ellyn

Service area: DuPage County

How to help: To donate to the Neighbors in Need campaign, visit dailyherald.com/neighbors.

More information: (630) 545-0610 or bridgecommunities.org